Charade
by Braxenimos
Summary: Sometimes people have to resort to some drastic things just to pay their bills. And when those people are two attractive girls living in the same apartment with access to the internet, those things might just end up being quite unsavory, to say the least. -Jori, rated M for language and future content-
1. Chapter 1

**Enjoy**_  
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**Jade**

"Fat piece of shit," I curse under my breath. There's no point in mumbling the insult, seeing as though I'm alone in my own apartment, but I'm kind of pissed right now and things just happen. Get over it.

I huff my way to the dresser that houses some of my least worn articles of clothing, still angry that I'm having to pack it all up. Yes, I live in a shitty apartment and, yes, I live in a shitty neighborhood, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy being kicked out of the place I've called home for nearly four years. I mean, I'm only behind on rent by six months. That's not too bad, right? My landlord certainly thinks it's too long; the prick.

My situation could have easily been fixed. You know, if I was a whore. Mr. Prick has offered numerous times for me to pay my rent in a more "off the books" sort of way, but I'd rather watch a marathon of one of those horrendous ghost hunting shows than stick anything attached to him inside of me. And that's saying something, because I've hurt people who have even suggested I watch that crap. I would have kicked him in the nuts each and every time he suggested such things, but I'm kind of a fan of keeping my apartment, if you couldn't tell. I guess the only thing keeping me from doing it now would be going to jail after he pressed charges.

It would still be worth it.

I grab at the various clothing, picking it up in heaps and carrying them over to my bed, where they fall in a jumbled mess. Once they're all there, I sigh. I've already packed the things I wear on a regular basis, but my clothes are pretty much the only things of value I have left any more. So each and every piece, even the ones that probably don't fit anymore, are worth keeping.

Once everything is packed, I stop in the middle of my tiny living room/kitchen and just take in the sight. So many memories were had here. Granted, none of them were really all that great, but memories are memories. And, you know… memories are hard to forget. That's kind of the point of them. But it's not that I'm leaving this memory filled place that really upsets me, it's the fact that it only serves to remind me of the failure I've become. I was supposed to be famous; a star of sorts, but that never happened.

And now I have no idea what I'm going to do. I have no where else to go.

The biggest reason that I can't pay my rent is because I lost my job. Again, it wouldn't have happened if I were a loose girl. My boss at the coffee shop where I worked put his hand on my thigh. I believe what happened next speaks for itself. I had been so scared that he would press charges, since his nose did, in fact, turn out to be broken, but he didn't. No, instead he fired me. And there was nothing I could do about it because his little "innocent brush of the thigh" was passed off as a harmless accident that the already known to be mean girl, known as Jade West, overreacted to.

I guess the struggling actress thing is so cliché these days that no one bats an eye when one makes claims of molestation, believing that they had prompted it in the first place to try and move up in the world.

So I growl. Standing in the middle of my worthless little place, I growl an angry noise as loud as I can before yelling one last curse word to mark it as the final thing I would ever speak in this place.

I have no television, having sold it over a month ago so that I could actually have food to eat. And all of the furniture is too big for me to move by myself. Oh, sure, it would be so easy just to hire a moving truck to pick it all up and move it to wherever it was I went to. But I don't even have a place to go, let alone have enough money to rent a truck like that in the first place.

Fuck my life.

I compose myself and try my best to bottle up all of the rage so that I don't lash out and end up breaking someone's car windows. That's just another thing I wouldn't be able to afford. But, look at them, they're so enticing as I make my way down to the only other thing I have that is truly mine; My car. Those windows on other people's cars are just aching for me to shatter them. It would only be a small and momentary relief, but a relief that I would cherish like nobody's business. Whatever that means.

I somehow managed to fit all of the suitcases into my small, compact car, along with every other appliance I could fit, and then head off to nowhere. It's probably not the best idea to be using up what little amount of gas I have, but I had to be out of my apartment by noon today. And I have to find _somewhere _to live.

Anyone that I could ever have called a friend has moved on with their lives, onto bigger, better and more famous things. Most of them, anyway. There is one left. It's not like we were ever actually friends, but I guess I'll have to admit that she's a possibility. Only as a last resort, of course. If only I was still younger. If I were, then I could just call Cat and easily have her help me with a situation like this. But things are different between us now; they're different between all of us. I never told her that I would, but now I miss the little redhead.

I drive around aimlessly for a while, mostly just trying to think of anywhere or anything that could help my situation. Forty five minutes later and not only is my gas running dangerously low, but I'm starting to panic. There is no one. There is nothing. The realization that my life has amounted to a whole shit-load of nothing hits hard and for the first time in years, I feel like crying. But I don't.

Parking my car in a relatively empty parking lot, I try and get a hold of myself. I have two options; One, I could sit here and cry as if my life is over and act like there truly is nowhere for me to turn to. Or two, I could give myself a swift kick in the ass and admit that I need Tori Vega right now. I might be Jade West, but I would really rather cry, to be honest.

I growl again, dropping the weight of my upper body forward and slamming my head into the top of the steering wheel. She would love this, wouldn't she? Tori would relish in the fact that I have to turn to her for help. And she would actually help too, I know she would. She always did, being the good natured little princess that she is. So instead of crying like a pathetic loser, I give myself that swift kick in the ass and pull out my phone. I have no idea what her number is anymore, but I'm one hundred percent positive that she is one of those people who posts their address on TheSlap for all of the stalkers and murderers to see. So pretty, yet so naïve. It's quite the cliché.

Oh, look, I was right. What a complete and utter shock.

She lives on some street I've heard of maybe one time, but I head there anyway, hoping to anything that I don't run out of gas before I get there. I don't, but I know for a fact that I need to fill up immediately the next time I hop in my car. So she better let me stay with her for a while, or else. And I'm pretty sure I can get her to pay for the gas, too.

Huh. This might not be as bad as I thought.

It doesn't take too long to get to my destination and I instantly realize that she lives in a place that is just as shitty as mine. Well, I guess I can't keep calling it mine anymore. It's twelve fifty eight, so in two minutes I'll have officially been homeless for an hour. And the only person I can turn to fix that problem is someone I claimed to hate all through high school. Oh, and her Slap page hadn't been updated in months, so who knows if the information was even accurate at all.

Again, fuck my life.

Leaving literally everything I own behind me, I walk up the narrow stairs to what is supposed to be her upstairs apartment. And even with all of the despair I'm experiencing today, I smile. I smile because at least she hasn't hit it big and gotten famous either. I've always taken a bit of happiness from that thought. This place is so small and the apartments are so close together that they can't be more than a single bedroom. That's fine though, I'll just make her sleep on the couch when I inevitably gain access to the place.

It takes her less than a minute to start opening the door after I knock, and I can't help but feel a bit nervous, as well as angry in having to even do this. The door opens and she's surprised. Quickly, she fixes her clothing and flattens her hair as best as she can, fixing her glasses more properly on her little button nose. "Jade?" she asks with that same dorky laugh I remember. She slips into her presentable and happy persona, but I can see right through it. Her clothes were obviously thrown together without much thought, she has no make-up on and I don't think she's even showered today. And she's tired, with strain in her eyes, as if she's been struggling as much as I have lately.

"Yeah, that's me," I say. I'm not sure how to go about the whole situation, suddenly feeling like I might not be able to push this version of Tori around as much as I did the one I knew in high school. "Are you going to invite me in, or keep staring at me like I'm about to murder you?"

I liked that she still seemed to be scared of me, but I needed to move this along.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Come on in." She steps to the side and opens her door further, motioning for me to make my entrance.

I barely even make it a few feet into the apartment when the girl is already scrambling for something to say. "Would you like something to drink? Water? Tea? Soda, maybe?"

"Do you have any liquor? Alcohol? Anything like that would be perfect." I don't make eye contact with her, instead looking around the small room. It's just as run down, if not worse than mine, and yet, it's just as homely as anything you might expect from Tori Vega.

I guess no matter where she is, she has to be as positive as possible.

Pretty much immediately after I ask my question, she responds with, "Yes!" a little too quickly. She scurries off to her refrigerator, which is also in a kitchen that is melded with the living room, before returning with a case of beers and sitting them on her coffee table just in front of her couch. Sitting down, she pats the seat next to her, silently asking me to take a seat. I do, and immediately grab at a beer and yank the bottle opener out of her hands.

"Well," she begins, that same mildly angry expression on her face that I used to enjoy making. "You certainly haven't changed."

But I don't respond to her. I'm too busy taking a huge swig of the liquid in my hands.

She continues trying to talk, proving herself to be quite the same person as well. "Would you mind telling me why you're here? Don't get me wrong it's cool to see old friends and all, but-"

The bottle quickly leaves my mouth as I make an "mph" noise to interrupt her. "Who says we were ever friends?" I ask without even thinking. I guess it's still an instinctual thing to do.

She sighs and I can tell that she doesn't have the energy to fight me like she used to right now. "Jade… just tell me why you're here, please."

But, again, I don't immediately respond to her. I take another big sip of my drink, handing her the bottle opener finally, and then fall silent in thought for a few moments.

Suddenly I'm speaking, surprising even myself. "How is it that out of all of our friends, me and you were the ones that never garnered any fame? I mean, we were easily the most talented. I just don't get it."

As I expected, Tori is surprised as well, and then I'm speaking even more surprising words because of it. "What? I may have been tough and mean to you, but I never denied the fact that you were talented."

She smiles. It almost makes me smile, seeing her tired face light up in a genuine smile like that and I can tell that she's flattered. This is already going in the wrong direction. Since when was I in the business of making Vega smile like an idiot?

"Wow," she huffs. "I should get you drunk more often, apparently."

"Why? So you can take advantage of me and then finally go as far as you've always wanted when giving me those many hugs of yours?" I responded, giving one good insult to try and counteract whatever had come over me a moment ago.

I expected for her to stick her tongue out, but she just laughed sarcastically instead. "Very funny, Jade," she said.

I finish my first drink a moment later, guzzling it down and then grabbing at the next one. She also seems to down hers as well, and I can't help but feel a bit proud of her for that. We both destroy our second and are halfway through the third when I finally start barfing out words again, finding myself enjoying having someone to spew my troubles at.

"I don't know about you, but I can't even get a paying gig anymore," I say, fiddling with the bottle in my lap and avoiding eye contact with her out of shame. Then I laugh a defeated laugh before continuing. "And now I have to live out of my car because of it."

I figure I'll be subtle about it at first. I'll wait until she pities me, as bad a that sounds, before finally dropping the bomb on her. And then she'll have to say yes.

"I know how you feel," she replies. "My job is so low paying that I barely manage to pay my bills every month. Most of the time the payment is late. Oh, and I can't even afford a car."

I nod and we fall back into a silence, sipping our drinks and just feeling completely awkward. Finally, her head lifts up and she looks me right in the eye.

"So, are you going to ask if you can stay with me yet, or what?" She asks out of nowhere.

And here I was thinking I was all sly about it and shit.

I purse my lips, clear my throat and expertly manage not to show my embarrassment. "You caught that, huh?"

"Sure did."

"Look, Tori," I begin, trying to find words to continue with after she caught me off guard. "You have no idea how grateful I would be. I'll even do chores around the house and drive you around as payment until I get another job."

Did I just say that? I mean, seriously?

"Seriously?" she asks, repeating my thoughts.

I sigh, but reluctantly reply, "Yes, seriously. I wouldn't have come here if there was anywhere else I could go. You're my only hope, Vega."

She squints her eyes and looks me up and down. "I'm sure there's a Star Wars joke in there I could make about that last line you just said, but I don't feel like looking like an idiot when I get it wrong, so I'll just say sure, why not? Welcome to your new apartment, Jade."

And apparently the alcohol is finally hitting me, because I burst into laughter at her dorky little speech. I mumble some sort of thanks as she joins in with the laughter, and we continue to guzzle down the rest of the beer, causing our giggles to continue for longer than I was actually comfortable with. I think I can handle this for a while. It's only temporary, and once I finally land that one good role, or one of my plays finally gets picked up, I'll be out of her hair for good.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: **_Sorry this took so long to follow the first chapter. I'd prefer for the first few chapters of a story to come out relatively quickly, but... my bad. __So what do you think of alternating their POV's? I figured that would be how it's done throughout the whole story. What do you think?_

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**Tori**

I'm smiling right now. I can't believe it, but I'm actually smiling.

Jade's been here for a few days and if anyone had asked me a week ago, I would have told them that Jade living with me would turn out to be one of the most horrible ideas ever conceived. But, not only could I not leave someone homeless, even someone who tried their hardest to make my high school life miserable, she's actually been as helpful as she said she'd be. So, as she does the dishes, I smile.

Despite the bad news I received today, and now have to tell Jade, I'm actually in quite the good mood. I mean, this is easily the most exciting thing that's happened to me in a long time. Jade is sort of my friend now, I guess, and I thought I'd never see the day. Wow, that sounded super pathetic didn't it? I'm so down in the dumps lately that I find making a friend to be this exciting… Anyway, we've been getting along exceptionally well, and I know that it's only because Jade wants to keep a place to live, so it's better not to anger the person putting a free roof over your head, but the smile on my face as I watch her do an embarrassing dance while cleaning dirty dishes doesn't fade at all, and has instead managed to sprout happiness in my depressing garden of emotions.

She does most of the menial chores, actually, and even drives me around wherever I need to go. She took the garbage out this week, she did all of the laundry and I've actually made it on time for work since she's been here. That won't be an issue any longer, but… that's not the point. The point is that things have been going great between us. We've even driven around a few times in search of work. And by work I mean of the entertainment sort. Television and play auditions, an indie movie or two; heck, we even put a few CD's of some of our original songs together and tried handing them out to record companies. We haven't had any luck with any of that, however.

I hear a little hum from Jade as her butt wiggles in front of me. It's a cute action, and I'm sure that this is something that she would never want anyone to see. Like, in a million years. But I giggle anyway, alerting her to my presence behind her.

With a jump, my new roommate turns quickly around and says the expected, "Vega!" So I playfully roll my eyes at her predictability, keeping my smile. "You did not just see that, okay?"

"See what?" I tease. I find myself enjoying being able to make Jade squirm a little. Call it payback, I guess. Whatever, it's fun. I see why she loved it so much. "See you humming to a song that you would probably consider garbage as you wiggled your hips to it? Nah, I didn't see that at all."

Her scowl is powerful, but she knows she can't do anything drastic. And I can practically see the fumes coming off of her. Maybe I shouldn't toy with this woman after all.

"Jade, I'm just messing with you. It's not like I'm going to tell anyone how adorable you can actually be. Besides, I like seeing that side of you. It's not as… scary." I say, attempting to bring her back to the roommate I've enjoyed these last few days.

But her scowl remains. Oops.

"Don't call me adorable!" she demands.

I laugh. She doesn't seem to like that, but I'm doing it anyway. With a groan, she admits defeat and turns back to finish up the dishes. And I finally get around to the reason why I approached her in the first place. "So, I got the call about that audition we were expecting."

"Really?" Stopping what she was doing, dropping a plate with a clank into the sink, she twists back around extremely fast. "Well?"

My smile fades, along with my laugh, and I find it hard to look her in the eye. Not only is this news bad, but it's not the only bad news I received today, and they don't exactly go well together. "I didn't get it. And neither did you, apparently, since they said they went with that fake boobed girl that went in before us."

"_Shit!_" she curses. She throws the rag she was holding onto my floor and folds her arms, shaking her head with a sad sigh.

I join in on her depression party and come around to her side. We both lean back into the counter and hang our heads in shame. You know, my butt is too bony for this. It's quite uncomfortable. I kind of wish I had her butt. Look at it, it's so much more plush than mine. I bet she isn't feeling very uncomfortable all… Stupid pillow butt.

Suddenly, my head is snapping back and away from looking at her butt as she's speaking again. "I still don't get it. What did we do wrong that causes us to keep failing like this?"

"Well, Jade," I say on instinct. I want to offer reason and comfort, but it takes me a few moments to even put together anything logical to try and explain the situation away. "Out of the tens of thousands of young, pretty girls that are trying to do the same thing we are, only a handful ever actually make it. We were just never that lucky, I guess."

"I know, but…" Jade sighs again and I can see the anger in her face. "Sure, I've found myself in a few starring roles, but none of them ever succeeded. Their ticket purchases were way too low. Hell, Tori, I've even resorted to trying to produce my own plays because no one would invest in them again. The risk seemed worth it, but each and everyone of them failed because I could never raise enough money. And now look at me. I have no money, and that's just another reason why."

I laugh one of those sad and depressing laughs that I've always hoped I would never end up laughing. I completely feel Jade's pain, and now at least I have someone to share these issues with. "I almost got signed to a record company not long ago. Almost."

"Well don't just trail off there, Vega! Explain!" Jade blasted as I just sort of stopped talking. Oops… again.

"Sorry. I don't know what happened, honestly. Something about issues with taxes, I dunno. All I do know is that the company fell through at the most convenient of times and my big break was taken from me."

Jade was shaking her head again, and I caught her eyeing the fridge. She was probably considering drinking again. I don't really blame her.

"Um," I start. I shift my weight around nervously and brush loose hair out of my face, looking to my feet in shame. "I received some other bad news earlier."

She looks at me, lets her face fall slack and emotionless and then takes the stride necessary to reach the fridge. Opening it, she says, "I'm assuming it'll be a good idea to get a little drunk after this news?"

I just nod.

She grabs the hard stuff this time, finding a bottle of vodka and pulling out a can of Red Bull as well. "You want anything to mix it with?" she asks.

"Uh, just grab that orange juice there." I lean around her and point at my accompanying drink of choice. "I'm not much of a vodka drinker, but if I'm going to drink it, then I'd rather have a screwdriver than drink it straight. _Screw_ that." And now I'm giggling like the idiot that Jade thinks I am. "Hah, see what I did there? _Screw, _as in screwdriver? What? That was funny."

"No," Jade says as she looks me in the eye. Her head shakes and she's simply standing with the drinks in hand. "No, it wasn't." Once she was done telling me how unfunny I am, she starts to walk away towards the couch.

"Oh," I laugh nervously and remember why it was that she tormented me all those years ago, and I grab two large cups from a cabinet before I'm following her to that same couch. "Well, I thought it was funny," I say a bit pathetically, I'll admit.

She plops down hard, her feet kicking up into the air for a moment and then she's placing the drinks onto the counter. The moment I put one of the cups down, she grabs at it and fills half of it with the vodka, quickly popping open the Red Bull and filling the rest.

"Wow," I say. "You really are planning on drinking the troubles away tonight, aren't you?"

Jade rolls her eyes and takes her first swig. The taste doesn't seem to phase her, and I can't help but wonder if it's actually pretty good with that energy drink. "Oh, shut up. And tell me what the bad news is already."

Taking the bottle, I pour myself some, but not nearly as much as she did. And I also fill my cup with more orange juice than alcohol. I'm not against drinking, but I'm not really a fan of getting what Jade likes to call 'shit faced'. I take my first sip as well, flinching and opening my mouth as I try and shake the taste away.

"Come on, spit it out, Vega," she prompts me further.

"I got another phone call as well today. You remember how we found it funny that we both happened to work at a shitty coffee shop? Now we've got another similarity to laugh at. I've been fired. Well, technically I've been laid off… Same thing."

Jade takes more drinks, apparently eager to get her buzz going, and then looks back to me. "Why?"

I sigh. Yeah, that accurately sums up my feelings pretty well, I'd say. "Some other company bought it out and decided to do a complete overhaul of everything, starting with the employees."

And Jade started laughing. She falls into the back of the couch, drink still in hand, the liquid swishing around. "Let me guess; struggling actress slash singer songwriter just isn't the type they want around anymore?"

"Guess not."

I take another sip, but this time in the form of a big gulp. So I guess it's not a sip then. Whatever. Shut up.

"You know," I look back to Jade as she starts to speak again. But apparently taking another drink before she continues couldn't wait. "I honestly never thought that _either _of us would end up like this. I said it before but, we were easily the most talented of the group."

I nod. I nod slowly but, I nod. "Yup, I agree with you." I feel bad for admitting that. However, it's totally true. I learned the other night that Jade can hold her alcohol better than I can and tonight is no different. I can feel the slur in my words already, and I've had less to drink than her.

Continuing where her miserable laughter left off, I laugh. I let myself fall back into the couch as well and then say, "It was hard enough to even find a job to pay the rent as it was. Every other small job is taken by the million other striving young Hollywood kids."

Jade's not even looking at me. A disgusted look crept onto her face after she sipped at her drink again, but I can tell that it isn't because of the taste. "Cat was so lucky," she finally says, and I even though she's not looking at me, I nod my agreement. "That stupid Platinum Award show thing had to come along and reject our entries. They chose Cat and now look at her; She's signed to some super record company that's name I can't even remember right now for some reason." Yeah, her words are slurring too.

"Don't forget about Beck," I say, adding to our pity party. "We all loved that stupid teen supernatural book series, and now he's got a four movie picture deal based off of them. So lucky."

"Yeah," Jade blurts. She sits back up and turns in my direction, her body straightening. "And Andre! How lucky was it for him to meet that dumb pop singing girl? Apparently she liked him so much that she hired him as her song writer."

I groan, sitting back up as well. "Don't remind me! He was supposed to be _my _writer!"

Taking another sip of this delicious nectar, another thought crosses my mind and I almost spill the drink because I'm in such a hurry to tell Jade. "Even Robbie is well off because of those Apps he made for the Pear company."

"How do you know that?" Jade asks. "I haven't seen that boy since graduation."

"Oh," And there I go again, laughing nervously as I'm ashamed to admit something else. "I still see him every now and then. He helps me pay my rent sometimes. I call it borrowing, but he calls it birthday gifts. I've promised to pay him back for every cent… but I know that'll never happen."

I know for a fact that the depression is evident in my face right now, but instead of the comforting words that you would expect from a normal person, Jade just laughs in my face again. She continues to laugh as she pours her a second cup, crashing backward into the couch again once she's done. "This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it!" she more states than asks, and she tries to take another sip through laughter.

Finally getting that sip she wanted, her laughter calms and she speaks again. "I even found a website run by Sinjin once. Apparently he's some sort of prop master and sells props to the high-end movie and TV sets. He was _way _too expensive for my crappy plays to afford." Her laughter returns, and it even starts to give me the giggles. "I mean… Sinjin! _Sinjin_ made it better than we did!"

And now I'm laughing with her. It's good laughter, though. Even though it's being laughed out of pain, it's a welcoming sort of relief to actually laugh again, especially with another person in the same chiz as me. But the fits of happy noises die down soon after and I'm shaking my head in a long, drawn out sigh.

Suddenly, I scoff and then say, "Most successful websites are the dirty ones like porn or nude modeling."

"Yep," Jade agrees with a nod. "I've seen how much some of those actually make in magazines."

We fall into awkward silence after that, and I'm fairly certain that a similar thought crosses our minds as our eyes slowly trail up to meet each other. Maybe it's this drunken haze I'm falling into, but Jade is really pretty. And so am I. Maybe the two of us could… No. I quickly shake my head of the thought and Jade notices.

"What?" Perking up again, Jade gets closer and keeps the best eye contact with me that she can. "What were you going to say, Vega?"

Crap.

"N-nothing," I stutter. "I wasn't thinking of anything." Nice save, Tori, nice save…

"Yes you were! You were thinking of doing some kind of modeling on a website, selling membership to a bunch of horny bastards, weren't you?"

I cringe, making a whining sound as I slowly nod. Please don't hit me.

But she isn't hitting me, at least not yet she isn't. Instead, her body relaxes again and she looks away, apparently in deep thought. And then she's nodding, saying a very surprising, "Let's do it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Jade**

"You can't do that!" My car door slams, from my doing, of course, and I cast my seething gaze to my current roommate.

"I can! It's _my _bed."

Her door shuts too, although far more daintily, like the little priss she is, and we find ourselves standing in strong, cold wind that insists I be pressed into the side of my own car. Its chill bites into my cheeks and with a growl at Tori's aggravating words, I push through it, stomping my way towards the door to the coffee shop we parked in front of. Tori is suddenly ahead of me, holding her cardigan down as the wind has a party with it and I smirk, because my leather vest isn't easily pushed around by a little threatening force.

The door tries to slam in my face after she makes her hasty entrance into the shop and I'm immediately raising an open palmed hand to stop it before it does. The loud noise the impact makes turns every patron's head to me, but I ignore them, scowling at Vega and speaking though clenched teeth once I make my own entrance. "But you already said that I could sleep in it. Were you lying?"

"Jade," she whines, adding in a sigh for obvious dramatic affect. "I'm not sleeping on the couch anymore when I have my own bed in my own apartment. You'll just have to deal with it."

We find our way to the small line of customers waiting on their caffeinated drink of choice, and the mild sting in the palm of my hand actually manages to relax me somewhat. Contrary to popular belief, there _is_ such thing as the good kind of pain. I'd thank Tori for letting the door almost break my nose, but… I almost laugh out loud at the thought of thanking her any more. I've done my life's share of that for her simply giving me a place to live. One thank you was enough. And the fact that I forgot the door was broken in the first place, the piece of shit owner of this cheap place ignoring codes and not getting whatever it is that slows it down fixed, sort of makes it my fault anyway.

But there is definitely such thing as the bad kind of pain, as well. I won't deny that.

I squeeze massaging fingers to my forehead, trying to ease the tension from my hangover, and say, "Tori, I'm not sleeping on that couch. It's probably infested with all sorts of little creatures."

"But you like insects and nasty things!" she retorts.

"Yeah, but I don't want them crawling inside of me through my mouth while I'm sleeping!"

"Oh," she says, accentuating the word as I would in a moment filled with anger. "But it's okay for that to happen to me?"

"Obviously!" My arms are folded now, and I didn't even realize I did it. Hmm. I guess it's instinctive behavior for me when arguing with idiots at this point.

"Whatever, Jade." She sighs again, and it's starting to get annoying. "I feel like crap right now and I don't feel like arguing about it. We'll discuss it later."

I simply roll my eyes and don't push the subject further. She thinks I'm going to cave, but I'm not. That couch looks like it was made before either of us were even born, not to mention the mysterious sharp thing that pokes me in the ass whenever I sit on the side closest to the door. Screw that, I'm keeping the bed. Whether she likes it or not.

Man, I'm in a really harsh mood today. It's this hangover. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to empty her fridge of all alcoholic beverages last night after all.

We get our coffees and she pays, of course, but I don't say thank you. I give a strained smile instead and then choose a table for us. It's a small one, barely suitable for two people, but there's two chairs at it, so it's obviously meant for a double dose of customers. And it's near a window, looking out at the perfectly dark and gloomy day outside.

I'm not at all surprised when her mouth opens first. "So, why this shop?"

"Because," I shrug. "This is the one I was fired from."

It's a small establishment; family owned or some shit. The head guy person doesn't care about his customers, not as long as he makes money. Which is easily the reason he hired me. I'm attractive, no question, and it certainly incited many losers to approach me thinking they had some sort of shot with me. Not even in their dreams, but they did always buy a coffee. Looking back on it, I kind of feel like a whore. But I can't help it. I like to show off my cleavage, because it's fantastic. Is that so wrong?

"Then why are we here? I still don't get it," Tori continues.

I shrug again. "Even if I get kicked out, it'll be worth it to see the owners face when he remembers what I did to his nose."

And now she's shaking her head. I swear to God, if she sighs again, I'm breaking her nose too. "Jade," she doesn't sigh my name this time, unfortunately. Though the judging tone almost sets me off anyway. "I'd ask why that would be fun for you, but I know that would be pointless. I don't think I'll ever understand you."

"Good. Because I wouldn't want you to."

She sighs again this time, and my teeth are immediately grinding, my gaze seething once more. "Okay…"

"Will you stop that!" I yell. Well, not so much a yell, but it was loud enough to send her flinching in surprise.

"Stop what?"

I sigh a very dramatic sigh, which is the most accurate impression of her anyone has ever seen, and say, "Stop sighing! It's getting on my nerves."

"Wow," she says, sitting back in her chair, folding an arm over her chest and then sipping on her coffee before continuing. "You're super irritable when hung over."

"You think?" I sarcastically reply.

And then she sighs _again_, smiling victoriously to really tip me over the edge.

"Vega, I will cut you. Right in front of all these people, I will cut you."

"Okay, okay," she leans forward again, bringing an elbow to rest on the tiny table. "We don't have to get violent. I was just messing with you. You know, like friends tend to do sometimes?"

I don't respond. I'd love nothing more than to tell her that I am not, in fact, her friend, but as long as she sees me that way, the better it'll be for both us with this living arrangement of ours. Plus there's a better chance of less resistance when I inform her that the bed is still mine tonight.

She playfully rolls her eyes, as friends do, I guess, and gives a slight shake of her head before breaking the silence with more of her words. "So, we came here to talk about something specific," she pauses in what I can only assume is embarrassment, and then continues. "Are you ready for that conversation yet, or what?"

Sure, we could have talked about this at her place, but she's all out of coffee, and there's no way I'm talking about this particular topic with a hang over _and _coffee-less. Probably could have gone to a grocery store and bought an entire pound for what this cost, but this tastes so much better than that cheap stuff and since Tori paid, no harm done to me. But now the sweet warmth of my favorite thing in the world is sliding down my throat and I already feel better because of it.

So I just come right out and say it. "Should we strip on camera or not?"

Tori's eyes widen and she flicks her vision around to all the nearby people, leaning even closer to me and whisper yelling her sarcastic tone at me. "Jade! Could you have said it any louder?"

"Yeah," I shrug nonchalantly, give a bored gaze at my cup and then take a sip from it. "Probably."

She makes an angry noise and gives me what she thinks is a formidable glare, and then I smirk, because now she knows how I feel.

"Whatever," she finally says. "Are you sure we should really do that? I mean, we weren't quite in our right minds last night."

"Well, what else is there to do? Work at another crappy ass shop like this? You know that it would make good money, Tori."

She whines, knowing I'm right. "It's just… it's kind of gross. And we both would like to have careers in television and music and movies one day. Won't our reputations kind of be ruined once our faces are all over the internet like that?"

"So we'll wear a mask or something." I don't want to do this as much as she doesn't, because, and I'll say it again, I'm not a whore. But all it would be is showing off the gorgeous body I was born with, right? I'm not exactly whoring myself out. I mean, plenty of guys stare at me and have their sexual fantasies about me as it is. Same thing. Right?

Her eyes reveal her contemplative thoughts, and then she looks to me. "You mean like, a masquerade mask or something?"

"Yeah, or something."

She nods now. We're both hesitant about this, but I'm tired of worrying about money anymore, and I know she is, as well. Damn it, all I want is a stable income for once. And this is the most surefire way to do it. Because if there's anything you can count on, it's perverts with credit cards.

"Okay, yeah that works. I guess." She lets her eyes leave me again, and those brown things find their way to staring outside in further thought. "We could also do other things, right? Little things that would make us look different."

"Right," And now I'm doing the nodding, still trying to completely convince myself that this is a good idea. "There's a few things we need to establish before we even approach this though."

"We need to figure out how to even set this kind of thing up first?"

"Well," I look to the ceiling, having not even thought about that. "Yeah, but, before even that."

She looks to me intrigued. "Okay. What, then?"

"We can't just strip down to our underwear. That would be kind of pointless. I guess it would earn us _some _money, but so many more people will tune in if we're naked."

Tori whines again. "Yeah, I thought about that."

"And to really insure subscribers, or whatever they would be called, we should do it live. Anyone can find a video of girls getting naked on the internet, but watching them do it live? That's a whole other ballgame, and guys are far more likely to pay for it that way," I say.

She sits back again, and I've just now come to the realization that she can't sit still because she's nervous. Fiddling with her cup, staring at it but not really looking at it, she says, "We're really doing this, aren't we? People are going to see our boobs."

"More than just our boobs but, yeah."

Silence takes hold pretty quickly, and all of the ambient noise and chatter around us becomes extremely apparent once our own words aren't there to focus on any longer. We sip on our coffee for a while and I notice the man whose nose I broke come out of the back of the store, look at me and then immediately turn around and go back to where he came from in a hurry. Yeah, there will definitely be a confrontation soon. But, as I thought, that look on his face just now was priceless.

"So," I quickly say, wanting to hurry this conversation along before we get kicked out and have to continue it in a car with little to no gas in the tank. "Question is: how in the hell do we set this up? I know my away around the internet, but I've never done anything like this before."

Tori's coffee-like eyes lock to mine again, and I can see an idea in her thoughtful expression. "Robbie," she says.

"Robbie," I repeat with a smile. "Of course."

"Yeah, if anyone, he would know exactly how to set this kind of thing up," she adds.

My face twists in disgust, and then I'm saying, "We're not telling him what it's actually for though."

"Oh, God no."

"Wait, won't we have to though?" I ask. "I mean, he's obviously going to have to set the majority of it up, so it's kind of hard to imagine any way around it."

And then her face twists into that same disgusted expression I gave moments ago. "Crap. You're right."

"Well, as long as he doesn't have to be in the room filming or anything."

"No, that's what my webcam would be for."

"Good," I say with a single nod. "There's already one person going to see naked in person, and I'll be damned if there was second. Especially one named Robbie Shapiro."

Her eyes narrow and I'm already agitated because I know whatever she's going to ask is going to be stupid. "Jade, the whole internet is going to see you. Why would he, or me, bother you to be seen naked by? Besides, I've already seen you naked before."

"In person is different, Vega. No one on the internet will know who we are, and there will be this… I don't know, disconnect or whatever you want to call it. I know Robbie will perv out like the rest of them and probably subscribe under some fake name just to see my tits, but he won't be seeing them while he's close enough to touch them, that's for sure. As for you, you've only seen my boobs. And that was by accident because that stupid hamburger costume wouldn't comply with my bra."

And she giggles. She actually freaking giggles. "Okay, I get it," she says.

I'm about to speak up again, something snide about how I'm not looking forward to seeing her naked body, and you just know it would have been hilarious, especially the look on her face, but I'm interrupted as my very own real life pervert clears his throat to my side. Mine and Tori's eyes both snap to the man, my former boss, and his arms are crossed on his chest. It's meant to be an intimidating stance, I know it is, I use it all of the time, but he still looks like just an ass hat to me.

"Jade," he practically spits. "What is it you're doing here?" His smile is fake, more fake than the one he uses for average customers, and I get the sudden urge to crush his nose again. It looks like it's been healing up nicely. I don't like that.

So I smile back. "Having a coffee with my friend. Is there a problem, sir?"

His eyes flick to Tori, his body turning only slightly in her direction, and he gives her a good look up and down. Now that I know of his molesting ways, I can't help but feel like I know exactly what just went through his mind. My face twists into an even more disgusted face than the thought of Robbie seeing me naked.

"I thought we established that you were no longer welcome here," he says, beginning his speech while still looking at Tori, but finishing it with eyes on me again.

Before I can respond, Tori surprises me by speaking up. "Why not?" she asks. "I understand she was fired from here, but does that also suspend her from being a customer?"

"Ma'am, I don't know what you think you know, but this woman assaulted me, and she is unwelcome here." His smile is even more strained now and I can tell he's getting angry.

"So? Did you get a restraining order?"

"Well," his smile fades, making mine even wider as he shifts his weight and feels like an idiot, or so I would assume. "No. But that doesn't change anything."

"Yes, it does. Do you have the right to refuse service to anyone?" Tori's small frame perks up in her seat, almost as if she's challenging the man. I'm proud, but what in the hell brought out this side of her in the first place?

"Yes!" he says all to quickly, thinking himself victorious. "I do have the right to refuse service!"

"Then it's a good thing I was the one that bought these coffees," she replies instantly. She takes a long, drawn out sip of her coffee, looking the man in his eyes.

My smirk tears at his very core, he's so angry. It's the funniest sight in the world, watching a man on the verge of exploding, but knowing that he shouldn't or can't.

I join in on Tori's taunting, deciding to push him much farther than she probably intended. "Yeah, and you know me. I'm so abrasive that I took one of her coffees right out of her hands."

His smile returns, but it's an angry one. He gives a slow laugh before turning to walk away, probably to plot my murder.

"Right," I begin, looking back to Tori. "Well that was fun. But that's probably our cue to bail."

"Agreed," she says.

"Where did that come from anyway?" We stand up, and she smiles at me as we start walking.

"I'm aspiring to be in the same business you are, Jade. I've had to deal with countless guys who want nothing more than sex. And that man eyed me like I was a piece of meat." Her smile turns sweet as we reach the door. "And besides, your life is crappy lately. You could use a little fun."

"Well, thanks." I smile too, not nearly as powerfully as she does, but a smile is a smile. Wait, I just thanked her again, didn't I? I did, but that's alright. Her life is crappy too, but she decided to make mine a little brighter.

She's still going to be the one sleeping on the couch, though.

She exits the place before me again, struggling to keep her cloths settled as the wind smacks her for the second time. Apparently she forgot all about that part. As I look at this girl, muffled yell coming through the glass in front of me as she runs to my locked vehicle without me, one thought crosses my mind, and it's not a particularly pleasant one.

I'm going to see that dork of a woman naked soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Note:** _So this took way too long to come out. Sorry about that, but hopefully the length will make up for it. Oh, and this is the first real update I've had since Victorious officially ended... Wow, that feels weird._

**_Enjoy_**

* * *

**Tori**

"Take it off!" Jade demands.

Her words are then followed by Robbie's as he says, "Yeah, come on, Tori. Take it off already."

But I still stand here like a statue. I mean, this isn't me. I'm not the type of person to get naked for a camera; to objectify myself to make money. Was I? No, I'm not. Yet here I am, standing in front of a very annoyed looking Jade West, a very excited looking Robbie Shapiro, and thousands of different cameras surrounding me on all sides, prepared to broadcast my boobs to the entire world the moment my shirt comes off. I can see the little lights on all these cameras, they're the only things illuminating the two people in front of me as the rest of the room drowns in pitch black. It makes me feel like there's a spotlight on me, and even though I've craved such a spotlight for years, it suddenly sickens me.

"No!" I yell, covering my chest with both arms and safeguarding my innocence. This isn't something I can do easily. I know I agreed to this, but… It all happened so fast. I feel like I never got time to prepare myself. It feels like I was suddenly in front of all these cameras just moments after we planned it, and Jade is standing there yelling at me. It's just so overwhelming.

Speaking of Jade, she's in my face now. Before I can explain myself, before I can say I'm sorry about something that I shouldn't even be sorry about, she slaps me. The pain forces my eyes closed for a second and when I open them again, reality sets in and I instantly realize that none of it was real; I was dreaming the whole time. And there's a pale hand on my face. I shake the hand away, pulling myself away from it and looking confused and angrily over at the person it belongs to.

She's not supposed to be in bed with me, but at least I know why I dreamed her slapping me. However, that's all I can remember at this point. I know she was there, along with… someone else, I think, and I was distraught about something. That's it, though. Man, what the chiz was I dreaming about? I hate forgetting a dream the moment you wake up. You know what? I wouldn't even be surprised if I was dreaming about something the woman next to me would consider to be stupid and she somehow knew that, so she slapped me in her sleep.

Even in her subconscious, Jade has to torment me.

My voice booms and it even shocks me as to how loud it comes out. "Jade!" I screech through my dry throat.

But despite the volume, Jade doesn't even seem to have heard it. I swear, this girl can sleep through anything. I'll give her one thing though, she looks like she's sleeping quite peacefully, with her unflatteringly messy hair and her body half way out of the covers. Me? I feel like I barely slept at all last night, and now I think I know the reason why.

That's probably why she looks so happy right now. Unconscious or not, she just _knows _she disrupted my sleep.

I groan as loudly as I want, it's not like it'll wake her up anyway, and I can't help but wonder why I ever even agreed to have someone who enjoys my misery live with me. Oh yeah, because when she first got here, Jade actually held the insults back. But now that she's settling in and getting comfortable, it's like she feels it necessary to revert back to her old ways. It's like something is bothering her these last few days and she's deciding to use me as an outlet for her anger.

I do _not _like that.

I look off to my digital clock on the other side of the room, putting on the bored expression I learned long ago from watching Jade use it, and poke her cheek. "Jade," I say, poking her cheek again a little bit harder when she doesn't respond. "Jade," I say again, still staring blandly at the clock. And she actually stirs, making a groggy noise. One last poke and another, "Jade," and I feel her face reel away. Looking back to her finally, I discover an expression of anger that is still half asleep looking back at me.

"What the hell, Vega?" she asks through instinctive morning stretches.

"Hey! I'm the one that should be mad!" I respond immediately.

She sits up now, bringing a hand up to try and rub the sleep out of her eyes. "Why? You were the one poking my face for no reason! And don't ever do that again, if you know what's best for you!"

"No reason?" I emphasize. "You agreed to sleep on the couch last night!"

She did, I swear. It took me three days to convince her, but she finally caved for some reason. Well, that reason was probably the last of the alcohol she consumed from my fridge. She's so much nicer when she's drunk, strangely. Hey, I'm not complaining. It worked, didn't it? Wait… I guess it didn't actually work.

_Frick._

"So?" she says, stepping out of bed and continuing to stretch the stiffness out of her muscles. "Drunk Jade should not be held accountable for the things she agrees to."

Ignoring the fact that she referred to herself in third person, I say, "So you're saying you don't want to go through with our idea anymore, then?"

And she sighs as she heads in the direction of my bathroom. "No, Tori, I'm not backing out of that one. So neither are you."

"Who says I want to back out?"

"Oh, come on," she laughs. "I know you. Getting naked on camera scares the crap out of you."

She's right. Sure, I've always wanted eyes on me. Ever since I began attending Hollywood Arts, I've wanted to share my form of entertainment with the world. But showing skin for creepy guys on the internet isn't exactly the kind of entertainment I had in mind.

"Yeah, but," I begin, pausing to morph my sigh into a groan. "Our identities will be hidden anyway, and neither of us have found another job yet, so I'll do it, don't worry."

"I know you will," she says, twisting around at the open bathroom door and smirking at me.

I send her a confused look as I finally climb out of _my _bed as well and approach her with folded arms. "You do? How's that?"

"Because," she says with a look that tells me the answer should have been obvious. "I know I can make you do it, just like I know this bed will be all mine soon."

And the door slams in my face as I yell, "It will not!"

-C-

It's no surprise when we reach her car an hour later, still bickering. These last few days have taken a bit of a toll on us, it seems. We're still poor and haven't been able to get our website off the ground yet, so I guess we're both a bit on edge. I called Robbie three days ago, but he said he'd be out of town until today, so we've had to wait.

Oh, yeah, that's where we're going. Hopefully he'll give us a good response when we ask for help. I know he will, though. He always comes through for me. It's really sweet of him.

"No, Jade!" I yell over her car.

"Yes, Tori!" she yells back. She slides into her precious driver's seat, still not having let me drive yet, and I enter the vehicle as well.

I groan once I get seated, something I've done multiple times already this morning. "A bed or some sort of comfy couch is the first thing we're buying when money starts to come in."

Jade starts the engine and her dreaded smirk appears. I get the urge to groan again, knowing that smirk is never good for me, and she says, "Really? You're so insecure about another girl in bed with you that you'd buy that instead of actually paying rent first? You said so yourself that it's almost due."

"You know what I mean, Jade. Once we can actually start buying things for ourselves." The inside of the car goes silent for a moment after I finish talking. Well, until I realize what she just said, anyway. "And I am not insecure!"

"Whatever you say," she responds with sarcasm.

"I'm not! Besides, you'd think that Jade West would be the one to get bent out of shape about having to share a bed with someone undesirable."

"Oh, I am," she replies, moving her vision away from the road to lock her serious gaze with mine. "That's why you're back on the couch tonight."

"You're not kicking me out of my own bed!" I yell.

She looks back to the road, huffing as she says, "Fine. But don't get angry if I _accidentally _hurt you while we're sleeping."

"Oh, I won't get angry." My arms fold, and I challenge her with my expression. "Because you're not sleeping in the same bed."

She grips the steering wheel tight and I can see the frustration building in her face. "Tori, I'm about to show you what I had planned all those years ago when I tried to drive you to school, but you bailed before I could do it."

"Oh, yeah?" I continue my challenge. Sorry, Jade, but I'm not nearly as scared of a girl as the one you knew in high school. Especially now that I hold all the power. "And I'm about to kick you to the curb unless you stop acting like a grunch again."

Jade sighs, defeat in her expression, and her grip relaxes. "Alright, you win."

I instantly feel bad. I have no idea why, though. She's the one in the wrong. But I can't help it. "I didn't mean to get so angry, but you're acting like you did when we first met, and I don't like that."

"Well, I'm sorry, I guess," she says. But before I can respond in anyway, she reaches over to the radio and turns the music up loud enough to drown out any noise I can make. It's some sort of hardcore, metal music or something. I dunno, it sounds kind of familiar, like I've heard them before, just not this particular song.

She watches my hand as it reaches out to twist the knob, turning the music down to an acceptable level so that I can actually speak to her, so I begin to blurt out my words before she can protest. "You don't have to cover my voice with this music. I won't talk about it anymore, okay?"

"Yeah, well, maybe I just like it loud."

Can't argue with her there, I guess. Though she hasn't listened to music that loud since she's been driving me around, but I can easily see her destroying her ear drums with this stuff when she's alone. And from what she's told me, she's alone in this car a lot. It's one of her favorite things to do, actually. I mean, it's a huge waste of gas, if you ask me, especially with how tight our money is right now, but going anywhere that might take ten minutes for most people takes thirty for Jade, simply because she enjoys just riding around, listening to music and thinking about things. You can even see it in her expression. She's so much more relaxed and less on edge when I'm not talking about something she couldn't care less about and all there is to focus on is the music and the road.

Suddenly she starts speaking again, before I can respond to her, saying, "I'll let it slide this time, Vega, but don't ever touch my radio again."

"Fair enough," I say.

And then we go quiet again. Which is kind of funny seeing as though I only turned the music down so that she could hear me talk, but now I have nothing else to say. So I settle for stealing a glance every now and then, enjoying the peaceful look on her face as she thinks about whatever it is she thinks about.

Speaking of which…

"So what is it you think about when you go on these long drives of yours?" I say, completely failing to resist the urge to ask her.

Fortunately, she doesn't seem bothered by my words this time. "It's when most of my creative ideas come to me. You know, my plays, my lyrics, whatever."

"Ah, that's cool, then."

"Yup," she says, obviously done with the conversation. And I can't think of anything else to say on the subject either, so… I guess it's for the best that we're falling into another silence n-

Wait! I do know who this band is!

"This is that one group that wears lots of creepy masks! Slipsomething!" I practically spit out in my excitement. I mean, come on. I actually knew who one of the bands were that Jade likes, even if I can't fully remember their name. But she just looks at me like I'm an idiot, of course.

"No shit," she says with her favorite sarcastic tone of voice.

"Oh," I laugh. "Sorry, I thought it sounded familiar when you first turned it on, but I couldn't figure out who it was. And now I finally did, so I got a little excited."

"Why excited?"

I flash her a smile, but she's not even looking at me anymore, keeping a good eye on the road in front of her. "Because it means we might actually have something in common."

"Wait," she laughs an amused laugh. "You like them?"

"Well, no…" I admit. Why would I? This music is so harsh and depressing. "But I've heard them before, so there's that. Usually I have no idea who in the world you're listening to."

One of her hands lifts off of the steering wheel and waddles in the air as she makes a sort of mocking expression. "And such a _fascinating_ conversation something we had in common created! We've heard the same band before! Let's be best friends!"

I shake my head, yet again fed up with her attitude. "Whatever, Jade. I consider us friends. And it's probably this music that is putting you in such a harsh mood."

"Or maybe I was already in a harsh mood."

"Why?" I ask. She'll probably drown me in noise again, but at least I'm trying, right?

"Oh, I dunno," she shrugs, and I can't help but feel like that was laced with more sarcasm. "Maybe because I have no money, I have to live with and piggyback off of you, of all people, right now, and _another _one of my plays fell through yesterday."

I sigh as quietly as possible, trying to shrug off the insult she threw in there, and say, "You were trying to get another play going? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it was never a sure thing anyway. Just a few people with false promises, saying that they might be able to get the money going, but that was obviously a lie. Why do you think I came home and went straight to the alcohol yesterday?"

She glances at me as she speaks and I take the fleeting moment to finally let her see my smile. "Well, now maybe we'll be able to raise the money ourselves this time instead of finding a crazy lady to foot the bill. It'll happen."

"Maybe," she says, doubt in her voice. Man, she's all over the place with emotions today.

Again, I'm not sure what else to contribute to the conversation. I'd like to comfort her somehow and tell her that another one of her plays will definitely happen, but I know she'll just end up degrading me again. Besides, I'd just be repeating myself at that point. So I let us slip into more silence as the music plays and I try and get in the same mind set that Jade does. I can't quite get there, not feeling nearly as relaxed as she says she gets, but that's probably just because of this music. Though this song really isn't as bad as other songs of theirs that I've heard, it's just really sad sounding.

"You know," I begin, breaking the silence after I let the song finish. "That song really wasn't that bad. I mean, I _kind _of liked it. I think."

But she scoffs, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Don't stress yourself just to try and start another conversation there, Vega."

"No, really," I try to convince her, emphasizing my voice; the one she always seems to make fun of me for. Even though she is right and I'm grasping at whatever metaphorical straws there are just to find some common ground. "I could actually understand what he was saying in that one. And he didn't curse that time. And it was more sad than evil sounding. It was nice… in a dark sort of way. What was it called?"

"Vermillion," she answers. But I have no idea why it's called that, because the lyrics indicated that it was about a girl that would never be the singer's… or she wasn't real… or something. I actually have no clue, to be honest. "And a lot of their songs are actually like that, especially on this album. People just have to give it a chance before judging, for once."

"Yeah, well you should take your own words to heart," I say, crossing my arms.

She looks at me with her glare, and I immediately regret everything all at once. "Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying," I shrug playfully and laugh out a noise that sounds like it's filled with fear. "You could give my music a chance more often than not, Jade. There's always something good to be found in every genre."

And she scoffs again. You know, that is really starting to make me mad. It's like she's saying "No shit, Vega, I'm smarter than you and you're just a stupid." That didn't make any sense, but, whatever. It would consist of that general theme.

"Yeah, I know," she says. Not quite what I was expecting, but okay. "You and I have sung some those songs together, remember?"

Oh, right.

What? Jade singing is so much different than the Jade I see the rest of the time. This Jade _never _listens to pop music or anything like that on her own time, as far as I can tell. But, now that I think about it, she had to learn the words at some point. And she has a very beautiful voice. So I'm glad she chooses to sing the more "tame" songs and not stuff like what's playing on her stereo system right now. Though, knowing Jade, she would probably be a goddess at that type of music. Or… a demoness? Vampiress! Yeah, that's the one. Friggin' vampires and their dark, sexy rock music.

"Well," I pause and squint my eyes, trying to keep a grasp on what we were even talking about in the first place. "Then maybe we could listen to something we both like sometime?"

"You just said you liked that song," she replies.

Crap.

"Yeah, but," I stumble over my own words yet again. "Whatever, can we please listen to something I might enjoy?"

"No."

"Please?"

Her head turns in my direction again and she smiles. I'm not sure what to make of this smile, to be honest. "You know what? Sure, we can listen to whatever you want."

"Really?" I perk up, getting excited and returning her smile.

"Yup," she answers. "As long as you let me sleep in that bed alone tonight."

And my excitement falls away, replaced by frustration. "No!"

-C-

It's always surprised me that Robbie has chosen to live in an apartment. I mean, it's a very expensive and high end sort of place, well a ways from where Jade and I are currently shacked up, but he could easily afford an actual house. Though he does live alone, and if he's anything like me, the prospect of owning and managing something meant for multiple people just seems like wasted effort. And I guess he likes to live up high, because his place is four stories up; the very top if this complex, to be exact. At least by the time you reach the top of the outdoor stairs, there's a nice view of L.A.

Jade and I reach the beginnings of the staircase at the same time and I instantly remember why the two of us never try and do something like this at the same time, as we begin our battle for who will take the lead. It's not a particularly wide set of stairs, seemingly only meant for a single person at a time. Unless I've simply grown fat. I haven't, have I? No, I haven't. I work out all of the time. Maybe it's Jade that is… Nope, she still looks to be in great shape too.

She puts forth her right foot, pulling her weight up the first stair just as I put forth my left, pulling my weight up as well. And we immediately squish together. We both stop, take a step back, huff and then try again at the same time.

"Vega!" her angry voice yells once our actions produce the same result.

But I'm not backing down. "West!" I yell back. I actually consider Robbie to be my friend, unlike Jade, so why should she go up first? Besides, she's gotten under my skin today.

After the name blasting, we both roll our eyes and let loose our respective growls, trying to once again head up the stairs at the same time. This time neither of us backs down and we actually climb halfway up the first flight, accidentally elbowing, bickering nonsense, and trying to force ourselves beyond the other. It's only at the point that I almost go flipping over the side of the railing that I realize this isn't worth it and I stop, motioning for her to take her precious lead. But I also make sure she sees the displeasure in my face, of course. Now that I think about it, however, it was probably not a good idea on my part, seeing as though she probably likes seeing such displeasure in me.

Her victorious smirk bothers me all the way up to _my _friend's place, and once we're there I force my self into the lead by reaching around Jade to try and knock first. She goes for the knock as well and we end up doing at the same time.

"I got it, Tori!" Her glare cuts deep, but not deep enough. We continue to rap our knuckles against the door, both of us wanting the other to back off so that we can be the only person knocking, I guess.

"He's used to me knocking!" I glare back.

"He won't be able to tell the damn difference!"

Just around the time Jade cursed, the door started opening and the two of us were left with a few mid air knocks before our brains caught up to what was happening. Robbie smiles at us, though not as brightly as the one he usually presents when I visit him, and says, "The difference of what?"

"Hey, Robbie!" My own smile snaps into place, pulling from years of experience in adopting one on the spot as Jade and I both ignore his question.

But Jade's expression remains the same. Her angered gaze that was previously directed at me turns to Robbie and she pushes past him with a quick greeting of, "Shapiro."

"Jade," I sigh. "Sorry, Rob. She's still a bit of a gank."

Robbie moves properly to the side and motions for me to come in. I do, just as Jade twists her head around the large apartment to get a good look, with folded arms and says, "I heard that, Vega."

"Good for you," is my immediate and mocking response.

"Uh," Robbie laughs an understandably nervous laugh, though I can't tell if it's because of two attractive girls standing in his bachelor pad or if it's because he's scared for my life right now. "Girls?"

Jade stopped caring about Robbie's place already, instead redirecting that devil stare at me as she ignores Robbie. "What was that?"

"Okay, okay. Let's not kill each other the moment you get here…" He tries to step between the two of us, momentarily blocking mine and Jade's vision of each other, and I actually respect his bravery. For a second, anyway.

"Robbie!" Jade yells at the boy with her threatening tone. And once he squeaks some fearful noise and backs away, I realize that not only has he still not grown a spine when faced with this particular ice queen, but that it could actually be a good thing. Not that I want to use intimidation tactics to get what we need, but… I'm just saying it's an option if we need it. Yeah.

Before I know it, my own drifted thinking has distracted me from noticing Jade stomping up to me. "I said, what was that?" she says through gritted teeth.

Okay, her attitude is seriously starting to make me mad. There has got to be more to why she's so angry lately than just losing funding for another play. Unless she truly does find it so dreadful having to live with me. I can't be _that _bad, right? Either way, it only prompts me to retaliate.

Folding my arms with a challenge in my eye, I say, "You heard me."

"OH!" she accentuates, widening her eyes. Yeah, that usually means she's reaching beyond simple anger.

Oops.

"You're lucky I still need a place to live, Vega," she says after a growl and a huff.

"Wait," Robbie's voice pops in again, reminding both of us that he's there, too. "You guys live together?"

Jade steps away from me, saying, "Unfortunately," as I roll my eyes and approach the boy. Actually, should I even be referring to him as a boy anymore? Because, you know, we're all twenty two or older now. Should I be calling him a… man? But he's Robbie. And when I think of Robbie, I think boyish. I sound so shallow right now, don't I?

"Yes, we do." I sigh, and Jade looks at me expectantly. "So, about why I called you the other day. That actually has something to do with it."

"Oh," There goes his nervous laugh again. "Before we get into that, should I, uh, can I offer you ladies a drink, maybe?" Robbie's not one to hang with people often, so I guess he's not used to entertaining too many guests. I haven't even been here in months. Even with his wealth, he's still shy and hopeless. It's just too bad Cat never quite returned the feeling he had for her. They would have made the most adorably nerdy couple ever. Well, at least he ditched Rex, his puppet, a long time ago. As far as I can tell, anyway. I haven't seen it in a few years.

"I'm good, thanks," I answer, but Jade has other ideas.

"Anything alcoholic?" she asks.

"I think so, ye-" he begins to answer, but stops when my voice interrupts.

"Jade! You're the one that has to drive home because you insist that only you drive your car, remember? You're not driving drunk."

She actually seems to ponder this for a second, but the shocked look I give her seems to spur the logical part of her brain into action. "Fine. Nothing for me either, then. You just have to ruin all the fun, don't you, Tori?"

"Whatever, Jade. I know you wouldn't actually be irresponsible enough for that. Besides, if you really want to drink your troubles away again, I'm sure Robbie would let you sleep here tonight. Hell, I'm sure he'd even let you live here."

Her face twists into disgust before she starts laughing. She doesn't even need to say it. There's no way on earth Jade would live with Robbie Shapiro over me, not even considering him when she was originally trying to find a place to stay, and I guess that makes me feel a little better. Just a little.

"Ouch," Robbie says, feeling hurt by Jade's laughter. Poor boy. "So why are we here today? What can Robbie help with?" His smile is actually kind of infectious, so mine returns. Despite his loneliness, he still manages to put on what seems like a genuine smile. But then again, that could just be all of the acting classes paying off.

Ah, the disadvantages of most of your friends having attended a performing arts school. You can never know for sure what's real and what's not. Most of the time, anyway.

Instead of smiling like me, Jade's eye twitches as Robbie speaks about himself in the third person. I can only assume that it bugged the crap out of her, but the only reason she's still holding her tongue is because she herself spoke in the third person earlier. And God forbid Jade West come off as a hypocrite.

"_Robbie_ can help us set up a website," she explains.

"A website?"

"Yeah," I jump in. "We'd like to set up something with paid subscription that can live broadcast things. But we want it to look, you know, professional."

His eyes narrow slightly, though not too much because he knows Jade would attack him if she thought he was judging her. "Well, yeah, I could easily set something like that up."

"Good," Jade states.

"What sort of video camera do you guys have?" he questions.

Jade looks to me and tells me to answer him with her eyes. Why she couldn't do it, I have no idea. Whatever. "Um, well I have a webcam that we were planning on using."

Robbie sighs. His posture changes all of the sudden into a more confident type, and he motions us towards his crescent moon shaped couch in his living room, big enough to fit far more than just the three of us. I sit first, Jade second, and he stops in front of both us, saying, "Sure, you can use a webcam. But for something that people will have to pay for, that's a bit on the cheap side, Tori."

"So what do you suggest we use?" Jade asks, folding her arms again and relaxing back into this amazingly comfy couch, making herself at home.

"Well," Robbie's arms fold as well and he looks inquisitively at the both of us. "What exactly is it you two are planning on selling and broadcasting, first of all?"

I mumble an "Um" noise as Jade fixates her glare at Robbie again.

Before I can manage a coherent thought into words, Jade growls, "None of your damn business."

"Jade," I whine. "You don't have to be so hostile. But…" I pause, smiling apologetically at Robbie before continuing. "We really would like to keep that to ourselves for now, if you don't mind."

"Okay…" he says, the disappointment in his face hurting my heart a little.

"Just make sure it's high quality stuff, Robbie," Jade adds. "That should be good enough."

He's a bit hesitant, it's kind of obvious, but we really need this to happen, so I say, "Please, Rob?" and flash my pretty smile, batting my eyes for good measure. I feel kind of wrong doing that but, hey, it's Robbie. The guy enjoys having pretty girls flirt with him, I'm sure.

"Alright, I'll do it." He gives in and I do a little happy dance, earning a roll of the eyes from Jade. Robbie takes a seat as well finally, rubbing his hands together. "Well, let's discuss things then."

"Okay," I say. I take a look at Jade and she looks at me. We both knew the boy would want to discuss every detail, thus one of the reasons we decided to come to his house instead of doing so over the phone. "What exactly do we need to discuss."

"Well, site layout, prices, etc. It'll be kind of difficult since you guys refuse to tell me what the site is for, but…" He stops mid sentence, squinting his eyes further this time, before he continues with, "Wait, is this some sort of porn thing?" A massive grin strikes his face and his eyes immediately go to Jade's cleavage. "Are Jade's boobs going to be broadcast to the world?"

"No!" I say all too quickly, putting on my expression that says I'm hurt that he even suggested such a thing.

But he's not even listening. He might as well be drooling as he looks at her balloons, and I guess she isn't helping the situation, wearing such low cut things that nearly show them off completely as it is.

"I would stop staring now," Jade threatens.

"Oh, come on, Jade." I look to her again. "You wouldn't wear tops like that if you didn't want guys to stare at them."

"Yeah, guys. Not Robbies."

The poor sap is still smiling his huge smile and even decides to add more to the conversation. "Tori's right, you know. Us fellows are going to look as long as you show them off. And why not? They're quite-"

But he's cut off again as Jade's words break into his sentence. "Don't you even say it."

"Robbie," I use my sweet tone again, pulling his attention away long enough to get words through. "Can we just continue discussing the site, please?"

"Sure," he says with a smile, stealing one last glance at the things on Jade's cheest that make him happy in the pants. And Jade is already ready to murder him again, you can see it in her face. He's about to die

"Hey, Rob?" I need a way to diffuse the situation before he actually does end up hurt and backs out of helping us. "I'd actually like a water now, if you don't mind?"

And again, he says, "Sure, Tor," as he hops up and heads towards his kitchen.

My smile falls away the moment his back is turned to us. And then the moment we can't see him anymore, I snap my serious expression over to Jade. "Can you cool it, please? Be nice! At least until everything is good and set up, alright?"

She sighs, looking me in the eye and truly seeming to contemplate if it's worth it or not. "Fine," she finally says.

"Thank you," I say. And with that, my eyes trail down to the very cleavage that Robbie was so transfixed with. Believe it or not, I might be a girl, but even I have to admit that those things have a sort of… quality about them that attracts attention. So as she notices my gaze, I say, "He's right, you know. You do have some of the most awesome breasts I've ever seen."

I half expect a pair of scissors to fly through the air and lodge into my throat, but they don't, making this the second time Jade has done something completely different just when I thought she would murder me. She takes a look down and at her beauties and then looks back up. Her devilish smirk takes its place on her lips and either she's suddenly a lesbian that likes the fact that I just admired her boobs, or she just had the same thought I did and realized that her large puppies will be quite the money maker, as weird as that sounds.

"Good," is all she says.

* * *

**Another note:** _So, plenty of you are thinking, "Where's the bewbs!?" Don't worry, nudity shall start next chapter. Until then, what did you think? I feel that this is a bit more of a filler, but I like to explore the girls relationship and am hoping to develop it nicely. Feedback is far more than welcome!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: **_Bewbz._

* * *

**Jade**

"Tori," I firmly say to pull her attention back up to my eyes. "I'd say take a picture because it'll last longer, but it's not my turn to be photographed. It's yours. Now stop staring and get to stripping."

She's immediately offended by the look I'm giving her, and she follows up her over exaggerated response of an expression with, "I wasn't staring!"

Yes, she was. Ever since she complimented my breasts, I've noticed it. I've noticed the way she randomly seems to just stare at them. It resembles the look people give when they just sort of stare off into space as they think, not at anything in particular, but a blank stare is a blank stare. And Tori Vega's gaze tends to find a nice resting place on my bosom. I don't really blame her though, I suppose. They are wonderful. One of my best features. Why else do you think I wear such low cut tops? I like to give the world's inhabitants a peak at what they can't have.

"You were," I tell her. "Now, can we please move this along? I don't want to be doing this anymore than you do, Vega."

"I was not! Just because I said you have nice boobs doesn't mean I like to stare at them all of the time, Jade." She's obviously trying to cover her tracks. But I see right through her. "I was just thinking. And you know how people just pick a spot to stare at? Yeah, I guess it happened to be somewhere in their direction. Don't just assume things like that!"

I'm actually enjoying this, and she knows it. My smirk breaks out over my lips as she continues to get highly uncomfortable and defensive. I honestly don't mind her looking - because in the end she's just another poor sap that can't have them, which pleases me - I just prefer her to ogle them on her own time, not when we're trying to be productive.

Tori looks me in the eye, gives the slightest shift of body language to indicate that she's growing even more uncomfortable with each passing second, and then glances over at Robbie.

Well, shit. I almost forgot about him. He's so quiet that I had forgotten he was even in here. Shapiro had insisted that he stay in the room that his cameras were being used in. And seeing as though we're currently gearing up to take tantalizing photo's of Tori for promos of sorts, he unsurprisingly had the best equipment for the job. It was actually his suggestion; to take preliminary shots of the two of us, scantily clad and possibly nude to tease anyone who stumbled upon our site. It would certainly create quite the buzz and hopefully start the spread of said site through word of mouth. Or whatever would be considered word of mouth for perverts on the internet.

"Robbie," I sigh, more to Tori than him. "Do you really have to be in here for this? You know she's just going to whine and complain and make this whole ordeal last longer."

"Well, they're my cameras, and I-"

I hold up a finger and squint my eyes questioningly, slowly pointing that same finger threateningly at the boy. "Wait a second. You know what? No, you're not going to be in here for this, I don't care what you say."

There's an exhaled breath of relief from my partner in crime and an annoying shrill from Robbie. "I'm not leaving my equipment alone, Jade! It's expensive stuff! Tori, tell her."

"No," I redirect my pointed finger at Tori, stopping her as she opens her mouth and before she can give in, just as she had caved when presented with the choice of allowing me to live here or not. She'll thank me later. "Robbie, you're only insisting that you stay because you want to see Tori naked. And if you don't get out within the next five seconds, not only will Tori think less of you as a friend, but your own little 'friend' will be lessened after it receives a visit from the scissors I have in my back pocket."

"But-" His stupid mouth opens again as he mumbles in fear, but those mumbles cease the moment those very scissors are retrieved and I make a show of how well they can cut air, at which point he scurries out of the room with a quickness.

The door closes behind him and my eyes roll. I mutter, "Pansy," just as Tori smacks me with a disappointed glare.

"I'd lose that look, Tori, unless you wish to join Robbie as one of my scissors' next victims," I tell her.

Wow, I sounded like a serial killer just then. Good.

"Jade," she whines. "You didn't have to be so harsh to him."

"Yeah, you're welcome."

I'm so happy right now, you have no idea. She's so conflicted. Not only do I see a bit of fear in her eyes as I continue to play with my scissors, coupled with the serial killer comment I made, but 'good girl Tori' can't decide if she wants to thank me for being nasty to someone or not. She makes a small grunt and then finally gives in, mumbling her thanks.

I snicker. "We'll have to work on that."

"Work on what?" she asks.

"Your attitude." I answer.

"Wait, wait, wait," she laughs an amused laugh, almost mockingly. Watch it, Vega, I'm still holding scissors. "_My _attitude?"

"Hey, I'm not the one being an issue. Now, if you could shut your face and get to stripping already, that'd be great." I was planning on ending it with that, but a thought crossed my mind, sending a smirk across my lips as I added, "And try not to stare at my tits, perv."

She makes an over exaggerated whine - a habit she needs to learn to drop before I get scissor happy - as I finally let go of my cutting instrument, sitting it down on the table next to me, instead picking up Robbie's precious camera to take their place. I wrap the thing's strap around my neck, looking like a seriously professional photographer, and prepare to begin taking pictures. But I'm quickly losing my patience again, realizing that this roommate of mine is still being extra frustrating today.

"Damn it, woman, do it!" She jumps at my outburst, which is largely satisfying.

"Okay!" she immediately yells back. "Okay. Just… give me a second and I'll do it."

So I do as she asks. "One."

But she simply lands that glare of hers on me that she thinks is, I don't know, intimidating? It's not, but, if it helps her get closer to tearing those clothes off and getting us closer to being done with this, then she can glare all she wants.

I let the camera hang around my neck and I cross my arms, letting her have her 'second' to mentally prepare or whatever. God, if this is what it takes for her to get naked for pictures, then I shutter to think of the moments before we go live. Her fingers curl around the hem of her shirt and I'm practically standing on the tips of my toes in anticipation at this point. This must be what it feels like for other people when they're watching a horror movie and you just know something is about to jump out and skewer the blonde bimbo of a cheerleader. Which seems fitting; Tori Vega stripping in front of me is my equivalent of a horror movie. Although I have to admit, at least she's an extremely attractive girl. Can you imagine if she was Honey Boo Boo child's mom? Fuck that, I'd just live on the street, out of my car.

"Any day now," I say, elongating the first word. She simply looks at me funny and finally lifts her shirt slightly above her belly button. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

And I suppose it's a good thing I'm not homophobic or anything. Not that taking pictures of a naked chick is gay or anything. Wait, is it? Anyway, the way she looks at my breasts every once in a while would scare off the homophobes in an instant. Besides, I've thought about what it would be like to be with a girl on occasion. Though if I were, she'd _definitely _have to be attractive. I mean, Vega here is about as attractive of a girl as I've seen in real life, other than myself, of course. But it's not like I'd ever tell her that to her face. Nah, that would be stupid, and just plain nice. Tori has enough nice to go around for the both of us. She doesn't need me adding in any.

The excitement is evident in my face, I know it is, and I can only hope she doesn't mistake it as arousal upon seeing her naked body. No, I'm simply growing far too impatient to be standing around like this for much longer.

But just as her shirt begins to lift above her bra, the door to her room begins to open again and her shirt comes quickly back down to cover her stomach. It's Robbie, who else would it be? However, before the door can open more than a few inches, my scissors are retrieved and flung across the room, planting firmly into the wood next to said door, approximately at the height of where a human head might be. A human named Robbie.

"Shut it!" I screech, unimaginably angry that the bastard decided to interrupt at the most inopportune moment possible. She was so close!

The door snaps shut and I stomp over to it, locking it and pulling my scissors from the new hole in Tori's wall, tucking them back into my back pocket where they belong. I'm back to my original position in front of her in no time, at which point I demand, "Continue!"

"Jade!" She yells her whine this time. Impressive. But it's obviously just to prolong having to show this camera her naked form. "You put a hole in my wall!"

I shrug. "It's just a small one."

"So! What if my landlord sees it?"

I hear Robbie try and say something through the door, but I ignore it, responding to Tori instead. "Then I'll just blame you."

She sneers at me and twists her head towards the door as her arms fold in front of her. "What, Robbie?" she asks loudly. Seriously, this is getting out of hand. If she tries to stall this any longer then I might actually become a serial killer, starting with the pretty girl. And then the Robbie.

"This better be important!" I yell.

His voice is slightly muffled, but still clear enough to understand. It's just a door, after all. "It is, I swear!" he says.

After a brief moment of silence, I realize that he was apparently waiting for my cue to continue, so I give it to him. "Then say it already!"

"Well," he begins. And then he pauses. He actually fucking pauses. _God damn it. _"I was just thinking, that, well, I'm a guy, right?"

And my response is immediate. "Not really."

"Just let him speak, Jade," Tori says, eyeing me with that intimidating look again.

"Well," Robbie starts again. But, Jesus Christ man, stop starting your sentences with 'well'. "Then it stands to reason that I know what a guy would like to see. So, what if you were to help her strip, Jade? Seriously, that would be double the appeal."

Tori's eyes go wide almost immediately. "No!" she shouts, unfolding her arms and looking me in the eye. But she only finds a smirk on my face. Not only is the nerd right, and it would definitely bring in more viewers, but if Vega here refuses to strip on her own, then a little help from me is very much needed.

"He has a point, Tori." I take a step towards her and make sure that my evil smile tears deeply into her. She takes half of a step back, but my stride is much further than her retreat. "You do want as many viewers as possible, right?"

"Of course I do, but, we aren't actually broadcasting right now. I mean, what would be the point?" Oh, she's definitely nervous; scared. It's obvious in her voice.

"Practice makes perfect."

She's no longer moving backwards and I stop right in her face, staring right into her eyes and enjoying every moment that she trembles in fear. Sure, the idea of stripping another girl kind of weirds me out, but the money would be worth it. And that enormously uncomfortable look on her face is _definitely _worth it.

Well, let's get one thing straight here. No, I'm not gay, but if this is going to become a major part of my life for an undetermined amount of time, then I'm going to have fun with it. So what do I do next? I dip my head to look down at my hands. And then I flick my eyes back up to look her in those brown eyes - You know, in that seductive way that no one but me can properly pull off - as I play with the hem of her shirt. And yes, even I realize that I'm taking this too far.

"Stop!" Tori finally demands, swatting away my hands and pulling away from me. Sure took her long enough, didn't it? "Seriously, Jade, does that not make you uncomfortable at all?"

So I sigh, and my smirk disappears. "Yes, it does. But not nearly as much as you, apparently. Look, I honestly don't mind it as long as we can finally have some damn money. And the quicker you get over your insecurities, the quicker we actually start making this money. Capiche?"

"Are you stripping her yet?" Robbie's voice suddenly interrupts us from beyond the door.

And I have no choice but to yell back with, "God damn it, Robbie! Shut! Up!"

"But I was just-"

"NO!"

After listening for a moment, and then realizing that Robbie had made the smart choice and shut up, probably because he peed himself, I look back to Tori for her response to my earlier comments before we were rudely interrupted. Sadly, she chose to drag this on again.

"Really?" she began. "You still do the whole 'no' thing to shut people up?"

"No." She rolls her eyes at that. "Now will you let me strip you or not?"

Her arms fold again, and she looks at me for a moment before looking away, sighing, and then saying, "Fine. Just don't look at me like that again. It felt really…"

"Gay?" I answer for her.

Her eyes instantly snap back to mine and she nods. "Yeah."

Awkward.

I take a few steps backward and remove the camera from around my neck. I place it back in the spot Robbie had insisted was the best spot for it to sit in the room, simply so that I wouldn't have to hear him bitch again if he somehow saw it elsewhere, and then meet Tori again in the middle of the room. We're both silent. There's nothing to say. So let's make it interesting, shall we? I close what's left of the distance between us with a sultry sway of my hips and pull my lips back up into a mischievous grin. And she's immediately got that hesitantly uncomfortable expression again. Success.

"Why are you doing that?" she asks with a nervous laugh. But I remain quiet, reaching her just as she asks, "Jade?"

Once in front of her again, I slip easily back into my seductive mode, though I don't cast quite as intense of a look her way this time. Almost, but not quite. And my fingers prod at the hem of her striped, pink and white shirt again.

"Jade, this isn't funny. Why are you doing that?" She almost yelled it this time, but she isn't pulling away, and I guess that's a good thing. As good as this situation could possibly be, I suppose.

"Vega, it's called practice for a reason," I tell her, temporarily showing her what a real intimidation face looks like. "I'm not going to yank your clothes off like I'm your mother trying to get you ready for school. We're supposed to be arousing people as we do this. So make it look like you're enjoying this, or it isn't going to work."

A smile appears. It's the most obviously fake and over the top smile that could possibly exist, but at least she's trying. I roll my eyes, simply happy that she's not giving me trouble any longer, and slam her with professional seduction once more. She quickly gives up on the smile, but manages not to look too uncomfortable or disgusted. Instead, she just watches me as I get a better grip at her top and slowly start to lift it up, taking a slight nibble at my bottom lip as we make eye contact. I let the fabric drag smoothly across her skin, as well as my fingers, eventually revealing her exceptionally toned and tan stomach. Finally, the piece of clothing reaches her bra and once it's above her breasts, I breath a sigh of relief. At least we've made it farther than before. Her arms lift up above her so that I can slide the shirt off, and I do. Our eye contact breaks as the cloth comes between us, but once the shirt is no longer an issue, her arms drop back down and our eyes instantly snap right back to meet one another, and her face has become perfectly framed by her brown hair that is still resettling.

Holy fuck. This is far more intense than I thought it would be. I know I've told her she's pretty before, but _damn._ I have to admit, I never thought it would happen, but my heartbeat might have sped up ever so slightly just then.

Before I even know what I'm doing, my fingers are back on her skin, just under her white bra and at the top of her ribs. I'm no longer smiling, but am instead letting myself get lost in the moment and performing to my best. I focus on my work, watching my fingers as I drag my nails slowly down her midsection, creating a feeling I know feels good. Mostly because I've done the same with a guy or two as I teased my hands towards their pants. Then again, this is a girl and I have no idea what she's thinking, but… stick with what you know, right?

Man, she's soft too.

For what feels like the twelfth time today, my eyes join with hers again as I reach the button of her jeans, and my favorite smile appears again. My lips purse together and I make a pop sound just as the jeans go _snap._ And then the zipper comes next. Now comes the fun part. I slide down to a squatting position, pulling her pants with me, and then help her to step out of them. But on the way back up, I practically snake up her body with my own, trailing my hands gently against her curves and feeling immense satisfaction as she shivers at my touch. And in no time at all, I'm right back in her face, mixing my blues with her browns.

She blinks and then clears her throat. So I wink at her and then begin to turn and pull away from her. But I let my hand linger, only to trail off of her hip once my body pulls it along, of course.

"Alright, Tori, look sexy for me," I tell her, grabbing at the camera and placing the strap around my neck again.

"Well," she whines again, but also gulps, still reeling from my touch. "How exactly do you look sexy? I tried to be a model once. They said I was too awkward and clumsy."

"Oh, come on. There's no way they'd turn a girl down with a body like yours."

And again, there's her nervous laugh. "They will when you accidentally break one of those big, fancy, professional lights." She pauses again, looks around for a second, and then finishes with, "Right on the photographers leg."

My turn to laugh. "Of course you did. Whatever, just… try and imagine yourself attempting to seduce my boobs. What would you do then?"

"Not funny, Jade."

"I'm laughing though. The general criteria for determining if something is funny is if someone laughed, and I laughed."

"Just," she groans. "Start taking pictures!"

And now she's getting serious. Her body straightens and she looks right at the camera as I lift it in front of me. Her poses are a bit stiff at first, but she gets the hang of it eventually, especially with my guidance. The girl seriously does not know how to be seductive. Either way, she eventually slips back into her dorky self, sticking her tongue out, making bad animal impressions, and simply being a goof. Which, honestly, works the best. It's much more natural for her than trying to fuck the camera through body language.

She's laughing as I take what will probably be the last underwear shot. We've got plenty of pictures, and the pose she just did of her interpretation of a mime had her cracking up. At least she's more comfortable with this now.

"Yeah, I think that's good enough for the just underwear shots," I explain.

"Okay then," she replies, and then goes to pick up her discarded clothing.

Oh no. We're getting all of this out of the way today, so I ask, "What are you doing, Vega?"

"Well, I'm… I'm getting dressed. Why, is that a problem?"

"Well, yeah. We still have to take the nude shots, Tori."

She stops dead in her tracks and does exactly what I expect her to do; slouches and whines at the same time.

"Seriously? Can't the underwear ones be good enough?" she asks.

"No," I answer. "But hey, we might not even use them. I would just much rather us be as prepared and on top of this as possible. We're going to need these promo shots to plaster on the website, and we need to get every best possible shot."

She sighs, and her voice is small when she speaks again. "We're going to cover our faces with something, right? Like, put a black bar in front of them?"

"Yeah, no shit."

With a gulp, she says another, "Fine," and then slowly starts to reach around to her bra, but I stop her.

"Ah!" I quickly remove the camera again and then head back to her, holding up a single finger for 'hold on'.

"What?" she inquires.

"I'm supposed to be the one stripping you, remember?"

Don't do it, Vega. Please don't gro- She's groaning… Damn it.

"For real?" she yells in my face. "You have to strip me _naked _too?"

"Uh, yeah, that's usually what stripping entails." She's still hesitant, so I guess I'll have to try and fix that. "Jesus, Tori, we're both girls here."

"It's not that! It's… I mean, you're going to strip me, all sexy like again… It's weird."

Well, she's not wrong.

"Just…" I step towards her, putting us at dangerously close levels again, and then continue. "Just don't think about it, okay?" I say softly.

And her eyes meet mine again as she whispers, "Kay."

Now, where were we. I place my hands at her hips again and she gives a slight twitch as my hands touch down. My body nearly hugs hers, and I bring my left hand dragging up her side, onto her back and up towards her bra. It's almost to the clasp when I lift my right hand up as well, but to her head instead. It brushes hair behind her ear, and her eyes close at that, before the hand trails down the hair it pushed back, all the way down until it escapes her brown locks and joins with my left hand at the bra's clasp.

Then I lean into her. I mean, why not? I get to make it look steamier, and she's guaranteed to feel more uncomfortable. And I'm right. I can't see her eyes anymore, because I've placed my head next to hers, but I just know they snapped open, and her head jerked. But my arms are already around her as I peak over her shoulder, down at the bra strap. I could have easily popped this thing off without looking, but it's much more fun this way. Besides, she's kind of comfy.

"Jade?" she mutters.

But I don't respond. Instead, I let my hot breath wash onto her neck and briefly let my chin rub her shoulder as I pop the clasp. The straps pops in their opposite directions, and the only thing that's really keeping the bra on her is the fact that my breasts are still holding it tightly against hers. I look down at the squished support clothing and smile my evil smirk, and then look back up to her before I slowly back away and let the thing fall to the ground. Surprisingly, she doesn't even try to catch it or stop it before it does, she simply watches as I back away, standing still.

Wow, those are perky. Like, not annoyingly perky, but they're kind of adorable. Obviously they have nothing on the size of my breasts, but I bet someone could still get a good grip on those and be satisfied. Hell, I'm half tempted to try it.

"Now who's staring at whose tits, huh?" her voice chimes in.

I look back up to her and discover a smirk. Damn, where has this Tori been all day. I like this one.

"Don't get smart with me," I say, walking back up to her. "We still have one article of clothing to go, remember?"

"I remember. Just do it already."

"Do what?" And now I'm smirking again.

"You know what!" she blasts. "Just, hurry and get it over with, please. I'm so tired of doing this."

Yeah… this is too good of an opportunity to pass up. "No, you're going to have to clarify, Vega. I'm… I'm not quite sure what you need me to do."

"Dang it, Jade. Stop messing around! Don't make me say it."

"Say what? I have no idea what needs to be removed if you won't say it!"

She groans again, but I accept this groan. This groan I like, because I know it means that she's about to cave, and then I'll get what I want. And then she sighs, refuses to look me in the eye, and says, "Will you please remove my panties, Jade?"

Yeah, bet Robbie got a kick out of that. Because, let's face it, you know his ear is glued to the door right now.

I've already tugged at the strap, pulling it away from her skin as I say, "Done," and then retrieve my scissors. They slice through the thin fabric in no time at all, and down and off goes the girl's panties, just as she requested.

"Jade!" she immediately protests.

"Tori!" I immediately mock.

"Did you really have to ruin my underwear? We're broke, you can't just go cutting up our clothes like that!" I love how she's completely ignoring the fact that she is completely naked right now. She'll realize it eventually, and then flip her lid.

"I didn't," I smirk.

"You did!"

"No, I cut up _your_ clothes. Not 'our'."

Her face goes slack, and my favorite annoyed expression shows up in that face. "I hate you."

"Says the girl standing stark naked in front of me without a care in the world," I say, and her eyes are wide again. I leave her with a quick smack on her bare ass, before trotting back to the camera and sheathing my scissors again. When I turn back around, she looks like she's trying to fold in on her self; holding one arm across her breasts as the other tries desperately to hide her crotch.

"Stop smiling!" she whines, yet again.

But I can't. This is too perfect. I mean, it's going to be difficult to get decent pictures with her acting like a baby, but it's worth it in the end. Besides, she _really _isn't bad to look at. Yeah, I could go gay for that. You know, if I wanted to. Wow, imagine when it's my turn and she's caught like a deer in headlights at the sight of my boobs. Crap, did I really just compare how in awe each of us would be at the sight of each others naked bodies? More importantly, did I really just admit that I would go gay for a Vega?

Yes. Yes, I did.


	6. Chapter 6

**Tori**

Yup, they've definitely gotten bigger.

"Vega."

Look at them, hanging there all perfect like.

"Vega…"

I mean, they're not like porn star ones that somehow look completely solid and sit in place as if held up by an invisible bra, but they hang there just right. Hers look more like pillows.

"Tori!"

"Extremely comfortable pillows, too," I mumble aloud.

"What?" Jade's frustrated expression quickly changes to curious confusion.

Wait, mumbled aloud?

"What?" I blurt out in response.

"You said…" Jade lets her words trail off and sighs. "Look, can you stop staring at my tits for five seconds and maybe, you know, take a freakin' picture already?"

"I wasn't…" Oh, who am I kidding? Yes, yes I was. "Okay, okay."

I finally lift the camera in front of me after what could only have been, like, a few seconds of staring, right? I mean, she only had to call my name once, I think. Yeah. She's naked, standing in a way that basically screams 'Look! My boobs are magnificent!' as she always tends to do in pictures. But this time it's not just the cleavage she's showing off, and I think she's taking some sort of strange pride in finally showing off her full glory to the world. The world being me right now, but you know what I mean.

And what a glory it is. I actually can't believe I'm finally seeing them, to be honest.

"Any fucking day now."

Crap, I was doing it again, wasn't I? Well, can you blame me? Look at them! I know they're boobs and I'm a girl, but _dang. _My mouth's not watering at all. Nope.

There's what sounds like scissors opening and closing and then I realize that Jade has a look of near pure rage as she holds her favorite pair of scissors in front of her, snipping them angrily, as if to suggest that she's about to cut me into little Tori ribbons. Because apparently I got distracted _again._

I have a problem.

"Okay!" I yell. "I'm taking the first one, strike a pose again."

She does, slipping into one of the few she always seems to use for pictures; this one being the one with a slightly open mouth, seductive gaze, hip flared to the left, and her hands up in the air. One of them twists into her hair, creating a somewhat messy haired look, and the other holds the scissors out next to her, close to her face. Sexy, but also creepy.

With an instant _snap, _or a _click, _the camera captures the pose.

Wait, where the hell did she even pull those scissors from? They weren't there a few minutes ago. And she's naked… More importantly, is that camera sound described as a snap or a click? Both? So it would be a snick? A clack? Are those already words?

_Snicklack, _goes the camera again, capturing another alluring photo as her pose shifts slightly.

I don't really see a naked female's body very often, other than mine, and I can't help but notice that Jade's isn't repulsing to me much at all. It's not like I've never been able to admit when a girl was attractive, or at least had a well kept body that I could respect, but Jade's is quite the form to admire. Her legs are long, her belly is perfect, her eyes alluring, and her… well, we'll come back to _that_ later. But then there's her boobs. Why have I always been drawn to those things? I have no idea, but what I do know is that I came to terms with my attraction to them a long time ago.

I gulp, and my own posture shifts a bit. A smirk breaks out across her face and those eyes of hers capture mine in a devilish look that would bring most people to their knees. She's enjoying this, isn't she? Might as well take advantage of her enjoyment.

_Snicklack._

Jade licks her lips and drops her scissor-less hand down to her hip and ever subtly caresses her own bare flesh.

_Gulp._

This really shouldn't be making me gulp. But she really is something to admire right now. Oh, yeah, that's probably a good indicator that I should take another photo then.

_Snicklack._

I clear my throat and look away to catch my bearings quickly. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. Shut up. And when I look back to her the scissors are no longer in her hand, but rather on the nightstand a few feet to her left, and her teeth are pulling at her bottom lip, her eyes pulling at mine, and her hands pulling softly at her boobs.

With a simultaneous _gulp _and _snicklack _it suddenly gets really hard to deny that I really want to face plant into those really comfortable looking pillows.

I'm still not gay though.

**-C-**

Fully clothed, boots on, and a smile on her face. A booted foot of hers kicks into _my _door, after she unlocked and then twisted the handle so as not to break the frame apart, and you can just see the amount of joy on her face as she fully believes the giant wooden thing would slam into Robbie. I cringe as her foot collides with it, hoping to everything that she doesn't splinter the thing and damage my apartment even further. But she doesn't, and more notably, there's no Robbie. This immediately makes her angry, which is no surprise. She curses not-so-under her breath and marches out of my room, probably towards the soon to be deceased Robbie Shapiro.

I liked her better naked.

Wait. Darn it, Tori…

Once I make my way out of my room as well, I find Jade standing near the couch, arms folded, looking down at a sleeping Robbie. Her eyes narrow as she looks at him, contemplating something.

But I speak before she seems to reach a conclusion, saying, "Is it just me or does he look kind of sad?"

He does. I mean, I know he's asleep, but… I can see myself in him right now. His guard is down, just as mine is every morning when I look in the mirror. Well, before Jade arrived, anyway; when I was actually alone. The face I would see was lonely and sad. And for the first time in a very long time, I feel sorry for Robbie.

"Good," she huffs, unfolding her arms and stomping towards the kitchen, where she stops, grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and takes only a moments hesitation once she lifts back up. "Well, don't just stand there, Vega," she finally speaks again. "Get the boy a blanket. Don't want him freezing to death before I can torture him some more."

I give a small smile of my own, one she doesn't see, and do as she commanded. Either she really does have a soft spot for him, or she saw the same thing in him that she sees in herself, like I did. Either way, this version of her is almost as good as the naked one. No, I mean it's better. It's…

Dang it, Tori…

"Alright, let's go," she demands.

I nod. Robbie is fully blanketed, he knows not to touch or take anything because, well, Jade lives here, and we're ready to go. We're headed to the store to buy things. "Things" being whatever we could use to hide our identities while on camera. Like masks of some sort. Not ones that cover up our entire face, but ones that at least make our eyes disappear. And Jade will probably get a bunch of fake tattoos or something like that. Robbie actually agreed to do wigs for us like he did for some of our high school productions. He just needs a few supplies that he seems to have misplaced or simply never reacquired since his high school days.

And, yes, Robbie knows what we're doing. How could he not? We decided it would be much more of a hassle to try and keep him out of the loop. It's not like we're doing anything all that bad anyway. We're just going to strip on camera. Strip each other. Maybe dance around a bit. Boobs would probably jiggle during such dancing.

Damn it, Tori…

With a sleeping Robbie behind us, I take deep breath after Jade passes by me to be the first one out of the door and then I close and lock it before we head down the stairs towards Jade's car. And suddenly things are a bit awkward. No bickering, no yelling, no angry glares. We simply trod down the steps in silence. I guess that's to be expected after we had both just seen each other not only completely naked, but we stripped each other out of our clothes too. And then took pictures of said naked bodies, telling each other to strike a pose… Yup, awkward.

Not only all that, but Jade had, like, danced all over me! I know that's the sort of thing that we're supposed to do on camera, but it felt more like she was doing it just to make me uncomfortable. _Really _uncomfortable.

What makes the situation even more awkward is that I had tried to do the same to her. I did her… slinky, slithering thing, or whatever, and tried sliding over her body as I began to undress her, but she just kept on smirking that smirk at me. She was completely calm and okay with it! And if I didn't know any better, I'd say she had been enjoying it. But that was probably because it was only serving to make me uncomfortable again, which she always enjoys. So I stopped. I stopped trying to be sexy or skilled or whatever you want to call it and just took her clothes off. It was kind of like any time that I would search her for scissors back in high school. I would be serious and straight to the point, and she would just stand there, let it happen, and smile at me. Not to mention the completely untrue comment she made about how long I spent trying to get her shirt over her breasts.

I can only see the back of her head right now, as we're almost to the car, but I can just feel her smirk. She knows it's awkward; she knows _I _think it's awkward, and she couldn't be enjoying herself more, could she?

Despite how awkward it is, and despite the gigantic smirk on her face, my own smile breaks out just as we both slide into her vehicle. I'm smiling because of the agreement we made earlier. I thought about it, and hearing more of her dreary depressing music was just something I didn't want to experience again, at least for a day. She suggested, again, that I can have the radio for a day if I just let her sleep alone in my bed for one night. My agreeing had nothing to do with the fact that she was topless and posing for photos at the time, no matter what she might say. So, finally seated, her smile fades and mine grows larger. Feels good to finally get one over on Jade West.

With a groan, Jade shifts the car into the correct gear and we take off down the road just as I turn up the volume and begin my search through radio stations.

"No," Jade says within seconds.

"I wasn't even going to stay on that channel!" I argue.

"Good."

I shake my head and sigh, leaving the "whatever" as a silent given, and continue to scan through the different channels.

"No," she says again, but I wasn't going to stop there anyway so I just keep going without a word.

This one doesn't sound too bad. It's playing pop songs that are a bit old, but at least they're pop s-

"No."

With a groan I change the channel again, coming upon a Rhianna song, which is quite refreshing, and my smile returns. It's one of her older songs, but a catchy one. It's her 'Diamonds' song and my lips immediately start to go along with the lyrics until:

"No."

So, out of what had quickly become a routine, I suppose, I begin to reach out to change the channel again. But, wait, you know what? She's not allowed to do that anyway! "Wait a second," I begin. "You're not supposed to argue what we listen to anyway, remember? So even if I wanted to listen to any of those other ones you would have had to deal with it. And you'll just have to deal with this one too."

Wait for it… There it is! That glare of hers fixates on me but she knows I'm right and she can't do anything about it, not if she wants that bed to herself for a night. She looks back to the road, frustration obvious in her expression, and begins to tap her finger agitatedly on the steering wheel. I'm not sure if this song really irks her for some reason or it's the fact that I'm getting my way that bothers her more. Probably the latter.

She groans, letting her annoyance get the better of her, and says, "Does it _have _to be this song?"

Well then, maybe I was wrong.

"What's wrong with this song?" I ask. "I like it."

"Yeah, no shit you like it, you stopped on it."

"Jade," I sigh.

Her face makes a bit of an ugly expression and her shoulder rolls dramatically as she mocks "shine bright like a diamond" and looks at me like I should know why that's not appealing or something.

"How do you not like Rihanna?" I ask, contorting my face into a bit of a confused expression, because I could have sworn I recall Jade liking her music.

"Who says I don't like her?" She says while still cringing at the current song.

"That face your making says you don't!"

"No," she begins. "This is the face that expresses my curiosity for why this annoying ass song is playing in my car. How the hell is this even still on the radio after this long?"

"Why is it so annoying to you?"

And she snickers. "Well, for one thing, _you_ like it."

How did I not see that coming?

"Seriously?" My expression drains of most emotion.

"Seriously." And hers lights up in victory.

"That cannot be the only reason, Jade."

She groans and closes her eyes for a few moments as if in physical pain do to my questioning and then says, "I just don't like it okay? You know, there is such a thing as liking a certain artist but still finding a song or two of theirs completely annoying."

"Well," I say. "In that case," and it's probably a bad idea to say this, but, "The songs you usually listen to really bug me too. Like, I just don't understand how you can stand it. I don't get it."

"Good," she says for the third time today as a response. "That's your opinion and you're entitled to it."

"Great," I respond, and I'm honestly surprised she said that.

"Just as long as you know that your opinion is stupid."

I would like to retract my surprise, if possible.

* * *

**Note: **_Sorry it's so short. I had originally intended for there to be a third scene (at the shop they were headed to) but I couldn't figure out how to convey the things I wanted through Tori's POV. That, and I'm a horrible person._

_Hope you enjoyed it anyway!_


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